Player-Driven Open World - Progression throughout the game is defined by you. Whether you want to focus on developing your home, helping the villagers become masters of their craft, levelling up your character so that you can take on anything or exploring the vast world of Rite of Life. You set your own objectives.

Influence The Economy of Your Home - Bring materials back to your village and watch as your home develops from a small encampment into a prospering town.

Level Up Villagers - Bring relevant materials back to your home to help the villagers train in their specialised craft. As they improve, more will unlock in their shops.

The Spectrum System - A unique levelling up system inspired from Final Fantasy X's Sphere Grid. Allows you to level up your character how you want to in order to suit your playing style.

Innovative Town Editor Mode - Customise the look and feel of your home with an in-game editor mode. Also complete unique quests only possible using the town editor.

Seasons, Dynamic Weather and Day & Night Cycles - Fully immerse yourself in the world of Rite of Life. Encounter different enemies, explore secret areas and experience new things as the seasons, variety of weather and time of day alter the world and how you can explore it.

Unique Turn-Based Combat - A tried and tested turn-based combat system that allows you to choose how to attack your enemy, exploiting their weaknesses. Watch as the season, weather and time of day affect the strength and behaviour of the enemy you're fighting. Is the enemy more feral at night? Are they weakened in the snow? Can't they handle the summer heat? Discover when best to hunt certain enemies. Also includes a huge selection of skills, attack animations and fully animated boss battles!

Intro

Welcome to our latest Rite of Life game development update. This time we’ll be diving into some of the characters that will populate your home as it continues to develop.

Just a quick heads up, if you want to know absolutely nothing about the characters in the game prior to playing, you might want to avoid this update. We’re only going to introduce a handful of new characters this time, not the whole cast. However, we are going to reveal more characters with further updates. We will always let you know ahead of you reading though!

Characters

All the characters in the game will appear in your journal with more information on them updated as you get to know them better. Additional information can be unlocked by chatting with them on a regularly basis, completing quests or just spending time with them. The biographies of the characters that appear in your journal will always be written from the perspective of your character.

Victor Frank – Alchemist

Bio

Victor Frank is a scientist who specialises in alchemy. Victor is quite a bizarre fellow who is always seen tinkering with another one of his latest inventions. Victor often gets new ideas from old texts that he has found on his travels and spends much of his time attempting to locate rare materials that he can use in his work.

Example Dialogue

Morning: “When I was growing up, my father told me stories about a man who could teach the creatures of the forest to talk.”

“I would very much like to inspect such a creature…”

Daytime: “I have heard whispers from my coffee.”

“They say that there is a dark secret within the forest.”

“A secret that may unlock the power to control the weather.”

Evening: “Too many experiments…”

“…too little time.”

“I found an old text by a scientist called H.G.Wells.”

“He discovered how to create a ‘Time Machine’.”

Additional Dialogue:

“Yesterday I tested a coating that was meant to stop water from sticking to my clothes.”

“I must have made a mistake because it made my clothes sweat.”

“I uncovered an ancient film the other day.”

“It featured a scientist who had created an advanced screwdriver device.”

“If I had one of those, I could unlock anything.”

Magna Virum – Carnival Host

Bio

Magna Virum has been the host of the travelling carnival for as long as anybody can remember. Magna Virum is a rather large and energetic individual with a true penchant for showmanship. Beryl Taylor claims that Magna Virum was not always such a powerful orator and believes that he discovered some sort of magical device, whilst lost in the forest, that grants him a heightened sense of vocal projection.

“Trade these hard-earned tickets in for some of our perfectly prestigious prizes.”

“BUT!”

“We are only here for a limited time!”

“So ready yourselves!”

“Prepare!”

“For the carnival…”

“…is now…”

“OPEN!”

Bow – Hunter

Bio

Bow was brought up in a remote shack in the centre of the forest. As a child she learnt how to respect the environment around her and to only use what was necessary to survive. Bow now acts as the last resort for the town when stocks and supplies run low; it’s her job to gather the necessary materials, in order for the town to be sustainable, whilst ensuring that there is a minimal effect to the ecosystem.

Example Dialogue

“I was reading about wildlife the other day.”

“The book spoke about frogs being introduced into the wildlife from a faraway land.”

“They were used to control a large beetle population that were destroying crops.”

“We might need to do that someday.”

Petunia Traynor – Pet Shop Owner

Bio

Petunia Traynor is responsible for the care and training of pets in our town. Petunia devotes most of her time to caring for all of the homeless animals that she finds out in the forest. In order to help reduce Petunia’s workload, a number of the people from the village decided to adopt some of the pets; which has resulted in a number of racing tournaments being set up.

Example Dialogue

“Hi!”

“Some people like to say that my job isn’t hard…”

“IT IS!”

“I have to make sure that the animals don’t eat anybody’s wares.”

“When the town grows, that job just gets harder and harder.”

Quasi – Carnival Token Shop

Bio

Quasi is a simple but lovable member of the traveling carnival who acts as the ticket vendor. Quasi loves telling people facts about the items that they buy from him. Rumour has it that carnival owner, Magna Virum, found Quasi stranded in the middle of a lake whilst traveling from town to town. Magna rescued Quasi from his predicament and then adopted him into the carnival.

Graham Marr – Teacher

Bio

Graham Marr is a teacher for the children in the village. Graham’s primary goal is to ready the children for life outside of the school so that they can contribute to the growth of the village. Grahams favourite subject is English, and he takes it very seriously; he is often seen getting red faced with anger due to someone not conforming to the rules of grammar.

Example Dialogue

“Today Benji told me that he “could care less” about the weather.”

“He clearly meant that he couldn’t care less…”

“Forget the kids. I should be teaching everyone in this village.”

Richard – Child/Student

Bio

Richard joined our settlement along with Harry, Julia and Rose. Richard is an intelligent child who greatly adores the environment and often isolates himself in the outskirts of the village in order to be closer to the creatures of the forest. Despite being good friends with the other children, he is always the one who has the blame shifted onto him when the other kids play pranks. Richard is always the person the other kids look to when they have a problem that’s too big for them to solve. When Richard grows up, he wants to be a lepidopterist.

Example Dialogue

“There’s a species of butterfly that lays its eggs under the skin of some animals.”

“When they hatch, the caterpillars eat their way out.”

“Gruesome!”

Harry – Child/Student

Bio

Harry joined our settlement along with Richard, Julia and Rose. Harry is both the youngest and the shortest of the children in the village; he is often seen crawling around in the forest and as such is constantly filthy. When he grows up, he wants to be a treasure hunter.

Example Dialogue

“I like days when we don’t have to go to school.”

“We go on special adventures in the forest.”

“No adults allowed!”

Julia- Child/Student

Bio

Julia joined our town along with Richard, Rose and Harry. Julia is the oldest of the children and is seen as their leader. She considers one of her prime duties to be organising pranks for Harry and Rose to participate in. When Julia grows up she wants to be a detective.

Example Dialogue

“Harry and Rose look to me for leadership.”

“It gets tough sometimes, but I make it fun by playing around with Mr Marr.”

“Richard always gets the blame for our pranks, but I know that he doesn’t mind.”

“It’s just a bit of fun to keep Harry and Rose occupied.”

Rose – Child/Student

Bio

Rose joined our town along with Richard, Julia and Harry. Rose spends most of her time following Julia around - pranking Mr Marrs. Rose is the second youngest child and often uses her age to lord over Harry. When Rose grows up, she wants to be Julia.

Example Dialogue

“Mr Marrs is always sooo mean.”

“He keeps talking about people not speaking properly.”

“They sound fine to me.”

Next Update

That’s it for this update. We are currently focussing on characters from a writing and design point of view. Our next update will be next month and reveal a whole host of new characters. We look forward to showing them to you. Thanks for your support, please keep an eye on our social media channels and don’t forget to join our Discord if you haven’t already! Come chat with us, give us feedback on the game. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Do you still think you'll do the relationship mechanics? Or PS4 port? I would like both still lol.

But yeah, could definitely throw 5 pounds your way... which google says is 7.71 dollars or less than one hour of work. Would probably throw more your way if it'd help get relationships or a PS4 port, too

Thanks buddy. We're trying to ask for the bare minimum needed to finish the game and then work our way up with attractive stretch goals. We have loads planned for the game so fingers crossed it builds momentum and we smash our Kickstarter goal :)

You can use dual weapons depending on how you decide to level up and when you learn certain passive skills. Dual weapons combined with certain passives will allow you to do double or with a lot of luck triple hits to your opponent.

Wow, been wanting a Rune Factory like game and a town building side game in one. Also glad to see the Sphere Grid lookalike. Would prefer being able to play it on PS4 though as I am a console peasant but I may make an eception lol.

One more thing: will this have the social and romantic aspects of Harvest moon and Rune Factory? I do greatly enjoy those things.

Thanks for your positive comment! I have some positive news for you in regards to releasing it on PS4. Whilst we're initially targeting PC via Steam due to the ease of getting our game on that platform, we're designing it so it can be played with a controller as well as mouse and keyboard. Which means we plan on trying to get Rite of Life on all the current gen platforms if possible. So I want you to know we'll be trying our best to achieve that so people like yourself will be able to play it at some point. :)

In regards to your question, we're running a Kickstarter later this month, we want to include mechanics such as friendship/marriage options but we want to make sure they're done well rather than just thrown in there so depending on the Kickstarter's success we may be able to include them. Another thing we're hoping to include is a Chao Garden (Sonic Adventure) inspired breeding/competition minigame in Rite of Life as well. This all depends on the Kickstarter's success though, the game will still get made either way but hopefully we can achieve our full ambitions with the game. If not, there's always room for a sequel ;)

Well, it'd be great if you could do that, and I'll be selfish and ask for some priority on relationships and PS4 :p. Still, spent 100 hours getting the Platinum trophy on the PS3 Rune Factory and would love a new game in the vein. Also, love upgrading town.
Don't expect this suggestion to be accepted, but I would like a Metroid/Zelda style item system. Like, being able to craft bombs to open up caves, or raise Fire monsters to burn dead wood to access new areas of the forest (upgraded fire m burn down bigger trees). Maybe some more involved puzzles. I'd understand if you can't or won't do something like that as it'd be a lot more work and stuff, but I would personally love it a lot so thought I'd mention it anyway.

Don't really follow too many indie games (only really one so far lol) but I still think I'll be willing to throw a few bucks at your kickstarter so yay.

Priority is on trying to get Rite of Life on as many platforms as possible so you needn't worry about that. We just can't 'promise' it as we've never published on those platforms before. So rather than promise it is coming to PS4/XBONE/WiiU and then find that for whatever reason it doesn't work out and disappointing people, we're just saying PC for now even though we'll be doing everything within our power to make it on those additional platforms as well. :)

The relationships/marriage mechanics will be early stretch goals so they have priority.

In regards to the puzzle suggestion, whilst we don't have anything like that currently, we do have the terrain behaving/interacting differently depending on the season/weather and time of day. So for example you could be exploring the Marshlands and find that an area is accessible only during winter or you might be only able to access an area in the forest when it is raining and the section has flooded. Interactions like those make each new day a unique experience for you as a player. Combined with the fact that each day the environment itself changes so you won't be exploring the same old layout everyday if that makes sense. Hopefully this will provide you with a large variety so that it doesn't become boring. :)

Wow, thanks for saying you'll support our Kickstarter. We won't be asking for much (compared to some!) so the fact you're interested in the project and are willing to part a few bucks means a lot. We're working hard to make sure the rewards for people who back us are worth it. :)

Well personally, I think tying in game exploration to building your town and skills would be cool.

Also, for socialization, it'd be cool if, in addition to boosting up the score in addition to gifts and quests and whatnot, you had an in depth dialogue tree for different conversations and would need to select the right response, using memory and not contradicting yourself and stuff. Though that would get very convoluted and require a TON of writing so eh

Honestly we'd probably do the friendship/marriage mechanic using dialogue trees opposed to gifts and taking them on quests. Maybe something similar to The Persona game's social link mechanic? Every time your 'friendship' levels up you'd get a small cut-scene between yourself and the character you're interacting with. Then there would be a point where you decide to make the relationship romantic or stay as just a friendship. When maxed out you'd receive an item from them that will benefit you. Maybe you could give them gifts to increase your relationship level quicker.

Yeah, that'd probably be better. It's just that, with dialogue trees, you'd need a lot of writing to not make you repeat the same choices over and over... And I don't mean taking them on quests, but doing quests for them, like bringing back monster meat for that butcher lady you've got there. Eh, lots of things you could do